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Benchmark indices have slipped in the negative territory owing to weakness in the Index heavy heavyweights including RIL, HDFC and ITC. Also, investors have turned cautious ahead of the ahead of key events including Economic Survey, Railway Budget and Union Budget along with the expiry of February series due later during the week.
At 2.10 PM, the 30-share Sensex is lower by 148 points at 29,083 whereas the 50-share Nifty has lost 52 points at 8,781.
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(updated at 2.10PM)Benchmark indices are trading marginally higher after trimming some of the early gains on losses in select index heavyweights like HDFC, Reliance and ITC while information technology, metal and select capital goods shares have sustained their gains.
At 1:00 PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 47 points at 29,278 and the 50-share Nifty was up 7 points at 8,841.
In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices, up 0.4% and 0.7% each have performed better than the front-liners. Market breadth in BSE is positive with 1,340 advances against 1,290 declines.
Traders will keenly follow the Budget Session of Union Parliament which commenced today and trading is expected to remain volatile in this extended week ahead of the presentation of Union Budget on Saturday.
Among global cues, investors will watch for Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's testimony on the economy and monetary policy before the US Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Further, foreign institutional investors were net sellers in Indian equities to the tune of Rs 89 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
Buzzing Stocks
7 of the 12 sectoral indices of BSE are in green. BSE Capital Goods, up 1.2% is the top gainer followed by BSE Power and IT indices, up 0.7% each. BSE Consumer Durables, down 1% is the top loser followed by BSE Oil & Gas index, down 0.4%.
IT stocks are trading higher in today’ session with TCS, up 1.5% emerging as the top gainer and Infosys and Wipro gaining 0.4% and 0.5% each. According to media reports, Infosys is evaluating a dozen more startups after acquiring an automation startup Panaya for Rs 1,200 crore with an aim of gaining cutting-edge technology such as automation and artificial intelligence (AI).
Sesa Sterlite is up 2.2%. Last week, Sesa Sterlite sought shareholder approval to chnage its name to Vedanta, according to the company's release to BSE. Hindalco has gained over 1%. Last week, Hindalco won the Gare Palma IV/4 coal block in Chhatisgarh for Rs 3,001 per tonne, according to the results of e-Auction for Schedule II coal mines announced by the Ministry of Coal on Friday, 20 February 2015. However, Tata Steel is down 0.2%.
Among Capital Goods stock, L&T has gained around 2% and BHEL is trading flat.
Select auto stocks have gained in today’s session. M&M is up 1.2% while Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki has gained around 0.3% each.
On the losing side, RIL has shed 0.6%. The stock had lost close to 3% in the last session over the corporate espionage controversy.
HDFC is down 0.6% and FMCG majors, ITC and HUL are down 0.1% and 0.6% each.
